Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $165.53

Shares of Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $166.71.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PCTY. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Paylocity from $172.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Paylocity from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Paylocity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Robert W. Baird set a $201.00 target price on shares of Paylocity in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Paylocity from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th.

Paylocity Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PCTY opened at $177.19 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $152.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $128.26. Paylocity has a 1-year low of $92.99 and a 1-year high of $178.24. The stock has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 35.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.50.

Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $444.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $431.46 million. Paylocity had a return on equity of 27.02% and a net margin of 15.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Paylocity will post 6.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Paylocity

In other news, Director Steven Sarowitz sold 19,459 shares of Paylocity stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.78, for a total value of $3,070,241.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,453,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $702,672,441.10. The trade was a 0.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Joshua Scutt sold 4,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.82, for a total value of $708,648.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 75,729 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,345,718.78. The trade was a 5.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 119,214 shares of company stock valued at $19,164,836 over the last three months. Company insiders own 19.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Paylocity

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Paylocity in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $430,315,000. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in Paylocity in the 2nd quarter valued at $70,540,000. Amundi grew its position in shares of Paylocity by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 663,449 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $69,350,000 after purchasing an additional 57,291 shares in the last quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Paylocity by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. now owns 616,407 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $66,597,000 after purchasing an additional 93,065 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Paylocity during the 2nd quarter valued at $54,906,000. 94.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Paylocity News

Here are the key news stories impacting Paylocity this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Paylocity launched its AI-powered Recruiting Optimizer, part of its Ignite AI platform. The company says the tool can improve recruiter productivity by 35%, accelerate hiring by 25% and reduce candidate drop-off by 15%, strengthening its competitive position in cloud-based human capital management software. Paylocity launches AI-powered Recruiting Optimizer
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens JMP raised its price target on PCTY from $150 to $180 while maintaining a “market outperform” rating, indicating confidence in further gains. Citizens JMP raises Paylocity price target
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted Paylocity’s history of exceeding earnings estimates and said the company currently has the key conditions needed for a potential beat in its next quarterly report. Zacks analysis of Paylocity earnings expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Paylocity’s latest quarterly results beat consensus, with earnings of $1.84 per share versus $1.62 expected and revenue of $444.73 million versus $431.46 million expected. Revenue increased 11% year over year, supporting the company’s growth narrative.
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional ownership remains high at roughly 94.8%, while several investment firms initiated or expanded positions during the third quarter. The individual trades were relatively small but suggest continued institutional interest.
• Negative Sentiment: Director Steven Sarowitz sold 10,617 shares for approximately $1.80 million on October 20 and 5,744 shares for about $978,000 on October 21, following an earlier sale of 10,445 shares. The transactions were executed under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, and Sarowitz still owns more than 4.39 million shares, making the sales a modest reduction in his stake; nevertheless, repeated insider selling can create some pressure while PCTY trades near its 52-week high. Paylocity director stock sale

About Paylocity

Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) provides cloud-based human capital management (HCM) and payroll software for organizations. Its platform is designed to help employers manage payroll, human resources, employee benefits, talent acquisition, onboarding, performance, learning, and workforce administration through an integrated system.

The company also offers tools for time and labor management, scheduling, employee communications, engagement, surveys, expense management, and other workplace activities.